“(We) arrived to find small amount of fire on the roof and what appears to be a large air handling unit that failed,” said City of Vandalia Fire Division Chief Chad Follick. “Some type of piece of machinery on the roof had failed and had a catastrophic failure.”
Workers evacuated from the facility and firefighters quickly worked to get the fire under control. The fire was contained to the roof and was not inside the building, Follick said.
Hazmat crews also responded to help firefighters and confirm none of the chemicals inside were released.
People inside the building reported the facility shook, Follick said, but no injuries were reported.
“We got reports of debris around the building a pretty significant distance from across the street,” he added.
The fire and explosion were over the processing part of the facility. Part of the roof was damaged, but it’s not clear if there’s any structural issues with the building.
The facility was turned back over to the company.
“They have other areas for processing,” Follick said. “They want to try and get returned back to service.”
The company is cooperating with investigators, he added.
The cause of the fire and explosion remain under investigation.
“I think it’s going to be one of those fluke mechanical issues if we had to guess,” Follick said. “Unfortunately, it was so catastrophic. It was loud; it was aggressive and everybody heard it and saw it.”
It took longer to clear the building because crews wanted to make sure there weren’t any chemical reactions or chemicals leaking.
“That’s why we took so long to clear the building and so long to let Hazmat do their thing,” Follick said.
The size of the facility also prompted a large response from fire crews than other calls.
“It’s so large of a building it’s going to be manpower intensive,” the chief said. “That’s why we bring all the equipment and all the personnel.”
Follick said he expects the investigation to take multiple days.
“It looks lie a piece of machinery failed from out best guess,” he said. “…Something in the ventilation system ignited and that’s what we want to try to look at once everything gets calmed down here.”
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